The present invention relates to a squeegee for pressing a dyepaste through a sieve of a printing machine, especially a rotary screen printing machine for printing a web of material. The squeegee is composed of an adjustable fixed portion, a movable intermediate member and a part which, during printing, presses the dyepaste through the sieve, said part of the squeegee consisting of a material having a low coefficient of friction and a high resistance to wear.
A squeegee of this type is known per se and is described in Netherlands Patent Application No. 73.13509 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,158). In this known squeegee a resilient metal blade is provided at its operative edge with a strip of material having a low friction in non-dry circumstances. The use of such material is of particular importance, since vibrations in the squeegee blade, are avoided especially when so-called boundary lubrication between the squeegee blade and the stencils of the screen printing machine occurs.
A proper operation of a squeegee in a screen printing machine requires that part of the squeegee cooperating with the stencil, to cause a reduced friction.
Consequently the material to be employed should have a low coefficient of friction. This material should further have a considerable resistance to wear as the squeegee continuously brushes past the inner wall of the stencil. The material should also have a reduced initial friction.
A drawback of this type of coating material known from the above mentioned reference(s) consists in that it is rather difficult to apply (fix) this material by gluing. This gluing is essential as soon as a metal squeegee blade has to be coated with a material having a low coefficient of friction and a considerable resistance to wear.